August 29th, 2018
To be black in America is to cycle endlessly through feelings of hope and despair. No date is more emblematic of that cycle than August 28th. August 28th, 1963 is justly celebrated every year as the anniversary of the historic March on Washington, famous for Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. In that speech, Dr. King spoke of his hopeful “dream” for an America where people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Those are the words always cited, which most Americans can recite by heart. People overlook that in that same speech, Dr. King challenged America, stating that “we have come to our nation’s Capitol to cash a check…[because] America has given the Negro people a bad check…, ” defaulting on the promises inherent in the Declaration of Independence as far as black people were concerned.
August 28th is also the anniversary of the day in 1955 when 14 year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered by racist thugs, after a false accusation that he had come on to a white woman. Emmett Till was viciously beaten, shot and then thrown into the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. His mother Mamie Till Mobley’s courageous decision to have an open casket at his funeral and to have Jet Magazine publish the photographs, forced America to confront the barbaric violence at the root of the system of white supremacy and segregation.
In the ensuing years, August 28th has marked other anniversaries that have given us reason for hope and despair in equal measure. It marks the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in 2005, the aftermath of which showed us how little black lives mattered. It is also the anniversary of Barack Obama’s nomination as the Democratic nominee for President in 2008, a milestone that presaged an even more momentous one on November 4th, tempting us to dream that this country might begin to pay down that debt owed to us.
The last two years, in which Trump and a cabal of thoroughly awful human beings have tried to erase every trace, not only of President Obama, but of any progress made towards equality in the last one hundred years, have disabused us of that illusion. This presidency has served as a stark reminder of the stubborn durability of white supremacy in this country — it mutates, but it doesn’t dissipate.
August 28th, 2018, was once again a day in which we were whipsawed between hope and despair. Yesterday, the family of 15 year- old Jordan Edwards received some measure of justice when Roy Oliver, the cop who cruelly murdered their child in cold blood, was convicted of murder. By all accounts, Jordan was a pleasant, very bright young man (although his life would have been just as valuable had he been a surly, rebellious adolescent).
Jordan, his brothers and two friends were leaving a house party in their Dallas suburb of Balch Springs, Texas, when the police were called due to a report of underage drinking. Jordan was a passenger in the car that was driving away from the police when Oliver shot him point blank in the head. The police initially claimed that there was an altercation and that the car was coming towards them, until bodycam footage made it impossible to sustain the lie (Source: “The police officer who killed 15 year-old Jordan Edwards has been charged with murder,” by German Lopez, Vox.com, 5/15/17). The conviction of Jordan’s murderer, while a welcome contrast to the acquittal of Emmett Till’s killers after less than one hour of deliberation, is cold comfort to the family that had to bury another fresh faced, innocent teenager, 63 years later.
Yesterday we also witnessed Andrew Gillum win a decisive victory in the Democratic primary for Florida governor, setting up a contest between Gillum, an unabashed progressive and the Republican nominee, Trump acolyte, Ron DeSantis. Gillum, the 39 year old mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, is an HBCU graduate of FAMU who favors Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage and abolishing ICE. The very real prospect that a progressive black man could be elected Governor of Florida and a progressive black woman as Governor of Georgia is a sign that we may cash that check yet.
#VOTE
#GOTV
#AndrewGillum
#StaceyAbrams
I read your blog every time you post and value your words at all times. This one is particularly poignant in reflecting our “progress” and retrogression as a society. It’s terribly sad that we need to celebrate the rare experience of true justice or the nomination of candidates who have humanism at the heart of their political agenda. My deepest hope is that in my lifetime justice will no longer be a surprise but expected and that the soil of our cultural and political richness will be recognized as our only salvation as a nation. I wish I could vote in Florida and Georgia this year…thanks for keeping us thinking.
Thanks Julie! I try to hold on to hope at all times and think of what I can do to bring about the future that we all want for our country.